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Allison Hanes: Coderre offers Montrealers bread and circuses

Author of the article:

Allison Hanes • Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

July 28, 2017 • 4 minute read

Workers put the finishing touches on the street course for the Montreal Formula ePrix race on July 27, 2017. In the background are some of the brand-new concrete safety barriers emblazoned with the city logo, which totalled $7.5 million.Ryan Remiorz/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

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When Marie Antoinette was told the people of Paris had no bread, she is alleged to have quipped: “Let them eat cake.”

The historical accuracy of the quote has long been debated, but the statement is considered shorthand for the hubris of a monarchy out of touch with the needs of its people. We all know how that ended for the court of Versailles.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre may be having a “let them eat cake” moment, as he scrambles to contain the fallout from the Formula E race this weekend. With discontent growing over the onerous disruptions for residents of the eastern downtown neighbourhood where the electric car race is being held, Coderre is doling out goodies to placate the restless masses.

Free Bixis! Free public transit!Free tickets distributed to nearby constituents (worth over $200 each)! These are on top of the $24 million the city is spending to host the event, which also includes $7.5 million for brand new concrete safety barriers emblazoned with the city logo, money spent on alternative parking arrangements for neighbours, and compensation for nearby restaurant owners whose terrasses have to be temporarily taken down.

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All this uproar, all this fuss, all this money and all this mollification for an event few aside from the enthusiastic mayor really seem to want. What Coderre is calling an “audacious” move to make Montreal “a player” on the international scene is, to many citizens, little more than an expensive nuisance.

This disconnect illustrates how out of touch the mayor is with the concerns of average Montrealers with an election campaign looming in November.

Perhaps if Coderre was spending less time with dignitaries at international-calibre events, both in foreign countries and here in Montreal, he’d realize how skewed his priorities are compared with those of constituents at home.

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Sure, it’s important to raise this city’s profile around the globe and be involved in important collective efforts, like the fight against climate change. But bread-and-butter local issues that affect people’s everyday lives shouldn’t take a back seat.

In Coderre’s eyes, residents should be willing to make “sacrifices” for the privilege of hosting the Formula E. Maybe those whose access to their homes has been impeded, whose bus routes have been detoured, who have been woken from slumber by the din of late-night preparatory work would be more willing to do their part to accommodate an event intended to promote the electrification of transport if the mayor was leading by example.

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But according to La Presse, public records show Coderre is the owner of two SUVs. The mayor issued a Twitter denial and said the city car he uses for official business is a hybrid. He also tried to deflect from the controversy by claiming his privacy had been violated. This demagogy was called out by Patrick Lagacé (who was spied on by police as a result of questioning Coderre’s office about whether he had paid an old traffic ticket).

In typical fashion, the more annoyance over the Formula E mounts, the more Coderre digs in his heels defending the honour of the event. He’s going all in on the merits of conducting the race in the streets of Montreal, saying it would have required costly modifications to run it on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve instead.

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Meanwhile, his main challenger for the mayor’s office, Projet Montréal leader Valérie Plante, has decried the exorbitant price tag, denounced the poor planning and promised to renegotiate the agreement with the race proprietors in an attempt to move subsequent editions to Île Notre-Dame.

Coderre is trying to portray the complaints over the ePrix as a media- and opposition-driven tempest, claiming only a few vocal locals really have a problem with the event. But he’s missing the fact that legions of other Montrealers are shaking their heads in sympathy over the inconvenience and dismay over the cost.

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This seems to be a recurring theme in 2017, with Montreal’s 375th birthday celebrations.

If Coderre thought all the 375 hoopla was his ticket to another term at city hall, he may have badly misread the public mood. The billion dollars worth of birthday gifts — a.k.a. legacy projects — have mostly turned out to be impractical vanity items.

A walkway from the river to the mountain is a lovely concept. But if you’re a Montrealer whose street is roughshod with potholes, whose route to work is dug up for water main repairs, who is hoping for a bike lane or more frequent public transit, decorations like granite stumps are hardly a priority. It’s like wallpapering the dining room when the roof is leaking.

Ditto, a flashy race seems an extravagant and superficial way to promote electric cars that does little to help ordinary citizens wean themselves from fossil fuels.

With voting day a few months away, the ePrix is the latest example that Coderre is offering Montrealers little more than bread and circuses.

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